Author: Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

Technical Difficulties Again

I planned to pack all the cookies I am sending internationally on Sunday evening, and I do not understand what happened. Lena left a little before 2 PM, so I had half of the day ahead. I talked to Boris since we didn’t have much opportunity to talk while I was baking. Then I went to see mom, had dinner and did all the cleanup. Even though we are baking next weekend, I do not want to leave any food for mice and cockroaches. And then, all of a sudden, the day was over! I only had time to pack five boxes, not even half of my international shipping! And I still went to bed late, realizing I was behind on everything in my life!

I had to finish packing and printing the shipping labels on Monday. The whole day at work went wrong; same as at home, I completely forgot about several tasks I needed to complete, and while one of them still could be done, another one (the corporate giving) was a total miss! 

What will you do when your whole life is going the wrong way?!

I left work a little bit earlier, with lots of things not done, but I also needed to see mom and then go to our annual condominium meeting, which ran late because everybody was so happy to see each other in person…

So – it was late, and I was still packing. Then I wrote all the remaining cards, which went to the packages. Then, I finally started customs declarations and labels. It was already 11-30 when I was ready to print them. On the fifth page, my printer ran out of paper. Not a big deal, I loaded more, but it was still saying that it is out of paper! What was wrong???

I stopped and started the printer – nothing changed. I checked the paper tray one more time – the paper was there. I could not leave it for the next day – I had already paid the postage and scheduled the pickup! After several unsuccessful attempts, I realized it was already late morning in Helsinki and facetimed Boris. His printer is identical to mine, which often helps to identify problems. 

After some remote diagnostics, he asked me to check whether the stoppers in the paper tray were set correctly to the Letter format, not A4. I checked, and indeed, they were set to A4 – I must have accidentally moved them. Everything was set up correctly, but the printer still insisted there was no paper!

I was at my wit’s end. Boris suggested I try the rear load, but this didn’t change anything. It was already way after midnight, and I told Boris that it did not look like he could help and hung up. Then, out of desperation, I removed the printer from the system and added it again – which worked! It started printing! Now, I had to put all the boxes into padded envelopes and attach all the labels to the packages.

Finally, I went to bed after 1 AM, and I still had to be up early to assemble the cookie tray to take to the office. The next day was Tuesday, and I had a CSO concert. I was so afraid I would fall asleep, but I didn’t – the concert was outstanding! However, after I got back home… I had to pack five more boxes! And I went to bed at 1 AM again!

What Is Different This Season

I am not saying that I am constantly sad. I am doing a lot of Christmas things, but whatever I do, I can’t get over the fact that many of my friends these days live in the warzone with their lives in danger all the time. And I can’t get over that another part of the people I used to call my friends are directly responsible for that.
I can’t say – that’s not me. No matter how hard I try, I can’t say that it has nothing to do with my life and that I didn’t do it.
This Christmas is not and will never be “Christmas like any other.” With all the cookies, winter markets, holiday trees, and lights, it is still filled with guilt and worries.

634 cookies!

I am so thankful to Lena for coming and helping me this weekend! I don’t know what I would do without her! Also, four people were helping us to decorate today, and I do not know what I would do without them!

Lena’s gingerbread cookies
My Outrageous Double Chocolate Cookies in making
And ready to go into the oven
Continue reading “634 cookies!” →

It’s a Cookie’s Weekend!

(Once again, forgot to publish yesterday!)

Lena and I worked so hard that we didn’t have time to take pictures. We took two breaks – one to walk my mom home after she stopped by (also, we somehow ran out of butter and needed to get some more, and the closest grocery was by my mom). That break was unplanned, and the one we planned was to go to the Loop to Christkindle market and see the Chicago Christmas Tree. to our huge disappointment, there was a long line to enter the market, so we didn’t go: and there was even a line to come closer to the Christmas tree, and we made it 🙂

Lena gave me this t-shirt last Christmas
Lena and I by Chicago Christmas tree

Doing Things With ODS

I ended up doing things with the youth from the shelter for two days in a row. Yesterday, we went to Christkindlemarket together, and today we went to the Steppenwolf Theater to see the world premiere of the play The Bald Sisters.

Yesterday was great! It was probably the same thing as with skating, which is that people didn’t quite figure yet that Christmas is already here. There were almost no lines for food and drinks, and you could get close to all the booths and see everything very clearly.

It was 55F outside, and it could not be a better time to wonder around. We drank hot chocolate, and gazed at all pretty ornaments,

Continue reading “Doing Things With ODS” →

The Start Of The Christmas Season

On Saturday and Sunday, Boris and I removed all the fall decorations and took all my Christmas accessories out of storage. And since they were already out, I could not wait to start decorating :).
As usual, I found that some lights that worked perfectly fine last year stopped working, and I had to replace them. Fortunately, since it is the very beginning of the holiday season, it was easy to order everything I needed and get the same-day shipping

Our house is all illuminated

On Tuesday, I wnt skating for the first time this season. I think that most people didn’t quite figure out that it’s a Cristmas season already, and there were not that many people skating. And it was perfect!

Continue reading “The Start Of The Christmas Season” →

Post-Thanksgiving Question

How is it possible?!

My fridge on Thursday morning
My fridge after – after having eleven people for Thanksgiving, having Anna’s family Wed- Fri, and giving away four large bags of leftovers?!

On The Brighter Side – And I Mean It!

One of my IKEA “light curtains” stopped working (one like broke and it ruined the whole thing), so I had to replace both – and look what I got!

No Work-Life Balance

I worked from home today because I needed to take mom to the doctor, and this time, it was a very inconvenient time, so it took almost three hours from the middle of my workday. And then, I could not switch to my non-work activities later in the evening because I wanted to finish the things I didn’t finish for work.

Especially because I took an extra day off while Boris was here, I felt like I almost forgot what I was doing before that, and I desperately wanted to catch up.

That’s the common theme for everything I am doing at work these days – I do not have enough time to do everything I want! And when I work from home, it’s an extra challenge because I can’t put a hard stop to work…

Love Where I Live!

Several things about Rogers Park which I wanted to mention.

  1. Alderwoman Maria Hadden at the Touhy homeless encampment (rapid rehousing event)

2. The Wild Onion Market co-op, where I am one of the owners, was featured on WBEZ

3. The support campaign for local businesses started yesterday; I went to the kick-off event (and took my mom there). She definitely won’t be able to accomplish the quest of collecting $150 worth of local receipts (having that only $30 of that could be spent on groceries). They gave us reusable shopping bags with a huge pile of advertising materials from the Rogers Park businesses. 

 

There was music, and free coffee and hot chocolate, and crepes with blueberries and chocolate.

4. And we biked both Friday and Saturday! Each time I think it will be the last biking of this season, but each time we get another gift of unseasonable warm weather. Yes, that’s not about Rogers Park, it’s about the lake 🙂

All the boats are gone until late spring